You know how this goes, just add a comment to this blog post with where Beethoven is, and be entered to win a pair of tickets to Beethoven’s Seventh this weekend!

In honor of Halloween, Beethoven is exploring one of the quirkier landmarks in Salt Lake.

Do you remember when you were a 5th grader and attended your first Utah Symphony concert with your elementary school class? If you grew up elsewhere, were you lucky enough to have had a field trip to hear a symphony orchestra?

If you have a love of music and would like to share that excitement with 5th graders, you’re a prime candidate to be a Utah Symphony Docent. Every year, virtually every 5th grader in the Canyons, Davis, Granite, Jordan and Salt Lake City school districts has the thrill of coming to Abravanel Hall to hear the Utah Symphony. In addition, we regularly get students from the Alpine, South Summit and Tooele districts. Most of these students arrive at Abravanel Hall excited about the adventure because they have been visited by a Utah Symphony docent who has introduced them to the concert.

The Utah Symphony Guild has sponsored our docent program for years and we couldn’t manage this program without them. Docents receive complete lesson plans for their school visit and attend a training session before going out to the schools. If you would like to learn more about our docent program, here’s a handy two-step process.

1. Call or email Beverly Hawkins at 801-869-9092 or bhawkins@usuo.org . She can answer your questions and put you in touch with the chairperson of the district in which you’d like to serve.

2. In addition to the regular concert-specific training in early February, docents are invited to attend a Listening 101 Workshop given by Symphony Education Manager Beverly Hawkins. This workshop is designed to help you gain a greater understanding of music. We will review the elements of music and practice listening for them. We will talk about the ways in which they are used by different composers and discover how this attentive listening can enrich our enjoyment and appreciation of music. Please join us on Friday, November 11, from 10 am to noon to spend some time exploring and enjoying music with others who share that joy. To rsvp, call or email Beverly Hawkins at 801-869-9092 or bhawkins@usuo.org .

This week, our Resident Artists are visiting five schools: Dugway Elementary, Bluffdale Elementary, Butler Elementary, Columbia Elementary, and Dugway High School.

National Opera week is Oct 28 – Nov 6! Watch our blog, Facebook, and Twitter for all sorts of fun things as we celebrate opera.

Other upcoming education events:

Tuesday, October 25 | 7 PM | Our annual favorite: Spooky Symphonies! | Come join Utah’s favorite Halloween tradition! Grab your costume and compete in one of the state’s largest costume contests with categories for groups, adults, children & orchestra members. Plus, hear the Utah Symphony perform your favorite spooky symphonies.

Friday, November 4 | 2 PM | Utah Opera Production Studios | Opera masterclass observation opportunity with Stanford Olsen. Our Resident Artists will be singing.

Saturday, November 5 | 1 PM | Abravanel Hall Stage | Open masterclass observation opportunity featuring young violinists. This event is sponsored by the Utah Symphony Youth Guild

Monday, November 21 | 7 PM | Abravanel Hall | The Late Piano Sonatas | A Lecture/Demonstration of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas with Principal Keyboardist Jason Hardink. Sit on the Abravanel Hall Stage and learn about Beethoven’s solo keyboard compositions. Part of our Beethoven Festival, tickets are limited.

This week, our Resident Artists are just visiting three schools: Holbrook Elem (Davis), Western Hills Elem. (Granite), and Indian Hills Middle (Canyons).

If you follow us on facebook, you’ll know that National Opera week is Oct 28 – Nov 6! Watch our blog, facebook, and twitter for all sorts of fun things as we celebrate opera.

Other upcoming education events:

Tuesday, October 25 | 7 PM | Our annual favorite: Spooky Symphonies! | Come join Utah’s favorite Halloween tradition! Grab your costume and compete in one of the state’s largest costume contests with categories for groups, adults, children & orchestra members. Plus, hear the Utah Symphony perform your favorite spooky symphonies. | Click here for info and tickets

Friday, November 4 | 2 PM | Utah Opera Production Studios | Opera masterclass observation opportunity with Stanford Olsen. Our Resident Artists will be singing.

Saturday, November 5 | 1 PM | Abravanel Hall Stage | Open masterclass obvservation opportunity featuring young violinists. This event is sponsored by the Utah Symphony Youth Guild

Monday, November 21 | 7 PM | Abravanel Hall | The Late Piano Sonatas | A Lecture/Demonstration of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas with Jason Hardink, Principal Keyboard. Sit on the Abravanel Hall Stage and learn about Beethoven’s solo keyboard compositions. Part of our Beethoven Festival.

Happy one-day-belated birthday to Ralph Vaughan Williams! He would have turned 139 yesterday. Generally speaking, Vaughan Williams is considered a twentieth century composer but the reality is that he was only thirty years younger than Tchaikovsky. The first thing you should know about Vaughan Williams is a) his first name is pronounced like Rafe, as in Ralph Fiennes b) never forget that extra a in Vaughan and c) Vaughan Williams is actually NOT hyphenated although you frequently find it listed in programs with the hyphen. His last name is what’s known colloquially as a “doubled barreled” name which is quite common in England and Wales. In Vaughan Williams’ case, his last name is Welsh. It throws of many a music student.

Vaughan Williams was an English composer with a lengthy oeuvre of often pastoral-sounding music. His father, a vicar, died when he was just three years old. She moved in with family, the Wedgwoods, to raise young Ralph. Her great-grandfather was the famous potter John Wedgwood, and the family’s china and pottery is still highly prized and collected. He wasn’t just related to one famous family but two: Charles Darwin was his great uncle!

Vaughan Williams studied the piano and violin as a young boy, of which he said, “I never could play [the piano], and the violin…was my musical salvation.” He attended the Juilliard of the UK, the Royal Conservatory of Music as well as the Trinity College at Cambridge University. At the Royal Conservatory, Vaughan Williams became friends with the likes of Leopold Stokowski (the great composer who championed many of his symphonies) and Gustav Holst. Despite this, Vaughan Williams didn’t publish any music until the age of 30. If you’re frequently depressed by the fact that you will never be Mozart, just remember Ralph Vaughan Williams!

Vaughan Williams married Adeline Fisher in 1896. She was herself an accomplished cellist and pianist. She was even a first cousin of Virginia Woolf. It seems to be a fairly open marriage as he began an affair with Ursula Wood in the late 30s. Wood even cared for Adeline when her health declined in the 1940s due to arthritis. Wood and Vaughan Williams married in 1953, two years after the death of Adeline.

Upon discovering English folk music in the early 1900s, Vaughan Williams compositional style permanently changed. He found his voice, purpose, and passion. His music is typically traditional in sound and largely tonal, very different from what the younger composers of his time (such as Stravinsky and Schoenberg) were writing. Vaughan Williams is sometimes dismissed by academic musicians because of his lack of experimentation but it’s important to remember that he was 30 before he started writing published music and by the time he wrote his most famous works he was in his 40s and 50s. He belonged to a different compositional school of thought than the more experimental types writing at the same time as him. One well known music theorist said than when listening to Vaughan Williams, “one is never quite sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new.” Indeed, Vaughan Williams’ music is frequently lush and gorgeous; the kind of music that orchestras love to play and audiences love to hear.

Vaughan Williams started becoming known nationally and internationally in 1910. This was largely due to his choral fantasy: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Listen here:

He also started gaining prominence with the Sea and London Symphonies.

“The Waves” from A Sea Symphony

Vaughan Williams actually volunteered for military service during WWI even though he was 41 and could have avoided conscription. Being surrounded by constant gunfire as an ambulance driver caused a hearing loss that progressed to almost complete deafness in his old age. Most of his most famous works come from the years following the war and include the ballet Job, the Pastoral Symphony (No. 3), his Piano Concerto, and his Symphony No. 4.

Scene 8 from Job: A Masque for Dancing

Vaughan Williams remained prolific well into his 60s and 70s and wrote a number of beautiful and interesting works including four symphonies (No. 6 received over 100 performances in its FIRST YEAR of existence) , the Christmas oratorio Hodie (Utah Symphony and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir have performed this together as part of the OC Tanner Gift of Music concert recently), and the opera The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Symphony No. 6 in E Minor

Parts 8 – 12 of Hodie

Our Utah Opera Resident Artists are again visiting a lot of schools! This week they’re performing at Mount Ogden Junior High (Ogden), Horizon Elementary (Murray), Robert Frost Elementary (Granite), West Jordan Middle School (Jordan), Trailside Elementary (Park City), and Monroe Elementary (Granite).

Utah Symphony is visiting schools as well this week! Piute High School (Piute) and Bryce Valley High School (Garfield).

Other events happening this week: the Resident Artists will get to attend a forum on “Time Management and Other Wisdom,” our Symphony Guild is hosting a luncheon at Cottonwood Country Club, and we’re hosting a High Tea at Grand America:

Beethoven to his Immortal Beloved: High tea at the Grand America
Utah Opera Ensemble Artists and Utah Symphony musicians perform Beethoven songs and chamber music, interspersed with readings from Beethoven’s writings, Saturday, October 15 | 1 PM. $32 and $16 tickets available through Grand America Tea reservations: 801-258-6707.
Seating is limited; reserve early.

I am truly excited to write about today’s Composer of the Week. I have been a fan of Takemitsu’s (1930 – 1996) since my student days! I am a composer myself and his music is very important to me.

A native of Tokyo, Takemitsu actually spent a few of his early ears in China before returning to Japan for elementary school. His education was cut short when he was conscripted into the Japanesse military at the mere age of fourteen! Although he described his military service as “extremely bitter,” it was in the military that he was first exposed to western Classical Music since it was banned in Japan during WWII.

Takemitsu joins the ranks of the Russian 5 and other great composers who are primarily self-taught. He didn’t even have an instrument! While working for the U.S. Armed Forces after the war, he listened to as much western Classical Music as he could and began to compose at sixteen. At the time he often stayed away from traditional Japanese music as it reminded him too much of the war, and said of composing “”… I began writing music attracted to music itself as one human being. Being in music I found my raison d’être as a man. After the war, music was the only thing. Choosing to be in music clarified my identity.”

It’s truly remarkable how on-trend he was despite being so isolated. Being self-taught and on the other side of the world certainly allowed him the freedom to try ideas that other composers never dreamed of. And yet, he started experimenting with electronic music (music nerds sometimes call it musique concrete) in the 1940s at the same time that Europe was just starting to think about electronic music. All in the day before twitter and instant world-wide communication!

Takemitsu’s 1958 Requiem for Strings made him hit the big time. Listen to it here:

Stravinsky was in Japan at the time and just happened to hear a recording. Stravinsky spread the news of Takemitsu in the U.S. and soon, Takemitsu was receiving commissions. Takemitsu’s music started changing in the 1960s after exposure to the indeterminacy of John Cage, the rigorous practice of Anton Weber, and a returning interest to Japansese music and instruments. Yes those are incredibly disparate influences.

1967’s November Steps (using Western and Japanese instruments):

Always miraculously anticipating (or perhaps setting?) the latest musical trends, the 1980s saw a return to a semi-tonality in works such as Far Calls and Dream/Window.

Rain Tree Sketch from 1982:

Takemitsu wrote over 130 concert works, over 100 film scores, all sorts of chamber works, AND wrote a detective novel and made frequent appearances on Japanese television as a celebrity chef. A philosopher, he also wrote about aesthetics and musical theory.

He composed over 100 film scores^[4][5] and about 130 concert works^[5] for ensembles of various sizes and combinations.^[6] He also found time to write a detective novel and appeared frequently on Japanese television as a celebrity chef.

We give you the opportunity to hear Takemitsu this season on March 2 – 3. Our principal violist Brant Bayless will perform his A String Around Autumn. Click here for more info!

This year we’ve had an ongoing joke running here at Utah Symphony | Utah Opera. We’re performing all of Beethoven’s Symphonies AND Operas! (ba-dum-dum-CHING!…..)

That’s right, Beethoven only wrote one opera, Fidelio. It’s an incredibly moving mythic statement about the power of love and proves that freedom always conquers over tyranny. We hope you’ll join us at Capitol Theatre Oct 6 – 8.

Since it’s another Beethoven week, it’s time for another installment in our “Where’s Beethoven?” competition. Post a comment below telling us where Beethoven is hanging out. One of you will be randomly selected to receive two free tickets to Beethoven’s Fidelio.

The post below was written by Jennie Litster, who is one of Utah Opera’s Resident Artists.
The Resident Artists consist of 5 young professionals, who perform in schools all over Utah almost daily.

Recently, we returned from our first touring adventure! It was only the second week that we have been together, so it was a new and interesting experience for most of us (our baritone is returning from last year). We were still getting to know one another and getting comfortable with the programs “Who Wants to be an Opera Star?” and “Opera 101” which we are presenting to schools all over the state.

During our school shows, we perform arias, a couple of duets, a trio, and two quartets. We have prepared a few of each kind of piece, so we can pick and choose to make every show different. During our first couple of performances we stuck to the lineup we had rehearsed, but this week we became adventurous and debuted several different duets and trios to add variety and cater to our audiences.

It’s always interesting to see how the children behave and react. Sometimes they are very attentive and ask great questions, while other times they can be rambunctious and noisy. We never know how much the children know about opera and working the crowd to keep their attention is always a challenge. During this week, we had a couple of interesting requests that we accommodated. John sang a snippet of “Figaro” to demonstrate the baritone voice, and to show the vocal range of a soprano, I sang in my upper upper register at 9am.

In addition to performing and representing Utah Opera in Carbon County, we also tried to take advantage of the beautiful scenery of the area.

We visited a museum, toured a few sites, and hiked. In one such instance, we drove to the Left Fork of Huntington Canyon and, after picnicking at the trail head, hiked a beautiful horse trail beside a river until the ominous clouds threatened to open upon us- we turned back. On our return trip to town, we took the long way through the loop and were able to travel a very scenic and breathtaking route along many vistas.

We had an adventure off-roading in the15-passenger opera van on our tour of the unpaved Nine Mile Canyon which is known as “the world’s longest art gallery” because of the extensive rock art.

On our way back to Salt Lake City, we stopped at a school that delighted us with a special treat as we were packing up: a group of girls from kindergarten wanted to sing a song to thank us – so we learned all about the color red.

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Here are this week’s Education Visits:

Mountain View Elementary (Box Elder), Pioneer Elementary (Granite), Twin Peaks Elementary (Granite), Forbes Elementary (Alpine), Whitesides Elementary (Davis), and Wasatch Elementary  (Provo).

Also this week, our Resident Artist Sishel Claverie did a Random Act of Opera at the City Library today at noon. Did you catch it? Sishel is from Guadalajara and her performance was in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month. On Saturday, October 8 you can watch the family-friendly movie “Beethoven Lives Upstairs” at the City Library at 11am.

Lesson 1: Composition and Disastrous Premiere(s)
Lesson 2: Beethoven’s Struggle with Fidelio
Lesson 3: AN “ORCHESTRAL OPERA”

by Luke Howard

Many consider the ensemble pieces the most successful examples of vocal writing in Fidelio. The Act 1 quartet (discussed in Lesson 2), the “Prisoners’ Chorus,” the final trio, the concluding rejoicing—these are precisely the places where Beethoven can treat the voices symphonically, and that is his métier.

Caption: Image of the Prisoner’s Chorus from Utah Opera’s 1999 production of Fidelio

Next, the famous “Prisoners’ Chorus:”

(Music starts at 0:57)

There is no question this is gorgeous music—a terrific 7-minute chorus in the style of a German Männerchor. But how does it propel the drama? It doesn’t. Absolutely nothing happens on stage during the chorus, and the theme of its text is only incidental to the opera. For all the lofty philosophizing about freedom and liberty in this chorus, the opera itself is about the love of a woman for her husband, and her bravery. A brave wife’s love is what the final chorus celebrates, and what the original subtitle of the opera underscored. This is another example where Beethoven’s remarkable music is far more important than the dramatic pacing or the story at this point.

Finally, the “stand-off” in Act II, “Er sterbe”:

The music in this scene is amazingly vivid—impassioned, emotional, moving—and yet Pizzaro, Leonore, Florestan, and Rocco stand there virtually stock-still for a full five minutes, with daggers and pistols drawn, making sure to reveal their true identities to all before the drama can continue. Then everyone freezes when the trumpet signals the arrival of the Minister, and they sing at length again about Leonore’s love and courage. The most exciting scene of the story, and the most musically animated, is actually one of the most visually static parts of the opera.

There is no issue at all with Beethoven’s musical instincts. He develops themes, varies the melodies, sustains the musical interest with masterly perfection. That is Fidelio’s greatest strength, and undoubtedly the reason for its continued success. But dramatically, in terms of the action on stage, these scenes are weak. (I personally find them almost farcical, for opposite reasons. The Act I quartet is a comic scene, but is treated as a very serious theme and variations. “Er sterbe,” on the other hand is a serious scene, the most intense of the opera, but the dramatic pacing so attenuated as to make it almost ludicrous on stage.)

Caption: Fidelio, Act II, Scene 3 (”Er sterbe”), an engraving from 1815

What carries the day is Beethoven’s music. It is proof, if it were needed, that opera is essentially a musical genre, not a dramatic genre. Otherwise (as a critic once claimed) Meryl Streep would be hired to sing every mad scene, and Sigourney Weaver would do everything else. We forgive opera for not being totally realistic because there is compensation in the music itself. And with Beethoven’s Fidelio, there is more than enough compensation for the weaknesses in dramatic pacing and libretto. Wilhelm Fürtwangler, the great German conductor, once observed, “Fidelio is not an opera in the sense we are used to, nor is Beethoven a musician for the theater, or a dramaturgist. He is quite a bit more, a whole musician, and beyond that, a saint and a visionary.” So the struggle Beethoven experienced in producing Fidelio wasn’t so much a struggle to write a good opera. It was the struggle to write an opera on his own terms, a symphonic opera that breaks all the “rules” of staged drama and allows the music itself to be the lead character. It is what he excelled at in his symphonies, and in that struggle to symphonize the opera genre with Fidelio, he succeeded beautifully.